In a storage system, how an enterprise wants to scale storage may impact available failure domains and/or how much the expansion costs. Ad hoc decisions based on guesswork and piecemeal information, individual preferences, undocumented equipment, incomplete historic view of how a particular storage system has evolved over time and incomplete or ill-defined “big picture” view can result in unwise or regrettable expenditures. In addition, problems inevitably arise after the fact of an expansion of the storage system where these ad hoc decisions are used. Manual inventorying of equipment is a step in the right direction in preparation for an expansion, but can be time-consuming and error-prone, and still may not present sufficient information for consideration by decision-makers. It is within this context that the embodiments arise.